Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai: A solution to worker’s problem
Guest Post by Dhrubo Bornon (dhrubo.bornon@gmail.com)
It happened again. Due to the negligence of factory owners, more than 100 people died. And we are asking, how many times more! Didn’t we say last time that it will happen again and again until government protects the workers? Yes, that is how we think, probably everyone, who are neither the ruthless owners nor their government patrons. We think that the solution is simple.
Then why things are not getting fixed? It is because we are looking at the wrong solution. We think that it is the government who can protect the workers. They should make regulations and enact them, and everyone will start to live happily ever after. But, regulations are already there. Now, how do you make government officials really enact them? There is no magic which will make it happen.
It is the government who is actually stopping us to arrive at a solution, and consequently it is making the problem worse. Look at every case of such factory incidents. It was both the involvement and the negligence of government that helped the owners to continue killing the workers, despite the presence of immense amount of regulations. It does not matter which party is in power. There is no ‘good’ or ‘honest’ party on earth. That is a myth.
Now the burning question is, whether you would seek help from someone who actually perpetuates the problem. Is it going to work?
Let us try to see how this problem would have been solved in a free society, devoid of a government. There would be no guarantee that mishaps would never happen in a free society, that is how life is. But, in such a society, no one can stop the workers from forming their own police force. Yes, I am talking about the coexistence of multiple police forces.
It is like Kurosawa’s film “Seven Samurai”, where poor village people hire samurais to protect them from bandits. The difference is, we have millions of workers. So a small amount of premium from each should be able to make a powerful police force. The cost would be much less than what the workers currently pay for their rent.
The police force of the workers would try to ensure the safety of the workers through persuasion and other peaceful means. But when mishaps happen due to the negligence of the owner, this force will also try to bring them to justice. They would try to incarcerate the owner and collect a large amount of fine. This would soon make the owners realize that the workers are not helpless. The protector of the workers are not the owner’s friend either, as always is the case in a government system. The problem will not sustain for long, or at least would not get worse, as it is happening now.
And yes, there can be multiple police forces working for the workers. This would create a competition and keep the premium even further down. The workers will have a choice to move to another security provider, if their current provider’s service is unsatisfactory.
Why is this solution not possible now? It is because the government assumes a monopoly on the business of security and stops anyone else who would try to build a police force for their own protection. If only one police force exists, it would inevitably and exclusively serve the purpose of the rich owners and their political collaborators. If there are many, it is difficult to buy them all.
Unfortunately, we are believers, who believe that the perpetuator of the problem, the government, itself can solve the problem, probably through a massive change of ‘consciousness toward goodwill’. So, we will go to the monkey again for solutions, and the monkey will eat our cake a little bit more. That summarizes the history of governments.
আলাল ও দুলাল | ALAL O DULAL 
this post exploits the horrible situation to put forward a stupid fantasy about reverting to a medieval world order..shameful..the answer lies in Shanbag to some extent.
Actually the opposite. The liberal fantasy is perpetuating the ever going repression of the poor. They will help the poor recuperate so that the poor goes back to work for them again.
But as soon as someone offers to divide the gun power to protect their interest and prevent the problem in the first place, the liberal-the epitome of the middle class-would outcry. Because they know that it is the government sponsored monopoly of violence that is protecting their class interest by unilaterally repressing the poor.
The liberal always calls for global consciousness toward goodwill so that the problem never gets solved, don’t they? But they will never give up their monopoly on violence. Because they know that as long as there is only one police force, it will never work for the poor against the middle class and the rich. Did any thing like that ever happen?
That is why the liberal middle class people are among the perpetuators of the problem, the collaborator of the repressive government.
Without guns poor will always have to rely on the goodwill charity of the liberals, and liberals love it more than anything else.
Moreover, having multiple private police forces, or even multiple private courts is not a medieval idea at all. Think of it as insurance for security. Existence of multiple insurers and multiple arbiters is a very recent idea. In US, some private courts are cheaper, faster and more just than the state-sponsored courts. However, the state is still preventing these courts to be accessible to common people in order to maintain their monopoly. In fact, monopolizing these institutions is entirely a medieval tendency, often wrapped with modern liberal consciousness and sentiments.
And to avoid confusions, I am the writer. It just happened that my wordpress account has a different name.
I thought the post was good out-of-the-box thinking that doesn’t think things through all the way. But it’s very unfair to label it as “stupid fantasy” or even “shameful”.
The answer lies with Shahbagh? You are kidding right? Already they have called for fashi for the building and garment owners. Shabagh’s only answer seems to be “fashi” for everyone. Now that’s medieval.